"Oh! worse, worse! These objects, madam, extinguish all poetry, and gallantry, and elevated feeling in our unhappy breasts."
"Yes, my dear madam, and after a while we become so dead to all that is beautiful and charming in existence"--that was from Mr. Roundjacket's poem--"that we are incapable even of appreciating the delightful society of the fairest and most exquisite of the opposite sex."
Miss Lavinia shook her head with a ghostly smile.
"I'm afraid you are very gallant, Mr. Roundjacket."
"I, madam? no, no; I am the coldest and most prosaic of men."
"Well, madam, that is but another proof of the fact which I assert."
"It is on the prosaic and repulsive subject of the Certiorari."
And Mr. Roundjacket smiled after such a fashion, that it was not difficult to perceive the small amount of sincerity in this declaration.
Miss Lavinia looked puzzled, and fanned herself more solemnly than ever.
"The Certiorari, did you say, sir?" she asked.
"Yes, madam--one of our legal proceedings; and if you are really curious, I will read a portion of my unworthy poem to you--ahem!--"
As Mr. Roundjacket spoke, an overturned chair in the adjoining room indicated that the occupant of the apartment had been disturbed by the noise, and was about to oppose the invasion of his rights.
Roundjacket no sooner heard this, than he restored the poem to his desk, with a sigh, and said:
"But you, no doubt, came on business, madam--I delay you--Mr. Rushton--"
At the same moment the door of Mr. Rushton's room opened, and that gentleman made his appearance, shaggy and irate--a frown upon his brow, and a man-eating expression on his compressed lips.
The sight of Miss Lavinia slightly removed the wrathful expression, and Mr. Rushton contented himself with bestowing a dreadful scowl on Roundjacket, which that gentleman returned, and then counteracted by an amiable smile.
Miss Lavinia greeted the lawyer with grave dignity, and said she had come in, in passing, to consult him about some little matters which she wished him to arrange for her; and trusted that she found him disengaged.
This was said with so much dignity, that Mr. Rushton could not scowl, and so he invited Miss Lavinia to enter his sanctum, politely leading the way.